Girl's Historical Clothing: Chronological Listings--the 1860s

Figure 1.--This portrait of Charles Marian Jacols (1856-1922) and Anne Margarita Jacoles, brother and sister, was painted in 1864. (I'm unsure about the spelling.) We know that they were Americans , but we are not sure where they were from. The trees in the background suggest a northern state. Notice the boy's cut-away jacket and the girl's wide skirt.

Conventions for mourning became much more elaborate in the 1860s acontinued through the rest of the century. The death of Prince Albert (1861), Queen Victoria's husband was an important factor here as she went into permanent mourning. We note silk dresses in black and and black and a dark color (like lavender/mauve) for full and half-mourning even for young girls. Girl's dresses continued to parallel adult styles with the exception of shorter skirts. Young girls would have dresses wellabove the ankels and very young girls might have kneelength dresses worn with lantalettes. Plaid dresses were popular--another Victorian influence. We notice puffed overskirts and more decorative attention focused on the back of the garment than in previous decades. This appears to be a transitional fashion between the hoop skirt of mid-century and the bustle of the 1870s and 80s. The hem of this dress would have been well above the ankes of the wearer. Shorter skirts were one of the distinctions between adult and children’s fashions in the nineteenth century.